The Avengers franchise is what made Marvel Studios the completely dominant force in comic based entertainment. The way they streamlined Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, and other characters into an expansive universe that also includes television shows like Daredevil and Agents Of SHIELD is something that has never been achieved before in motion picture entertainment.

The Avengers continuity, even without including the individual characters is supremely daunting. So, I’ve put together a chronology of some of the best Avengers related books that are currently or were recently available in collected editions (the recently available are still around for pretty cheap on various online outlets and in bookstores) into ten TV seasons.Last season saw the falls of Norman Osborn, and some in-depth time with Captain Marvel and the Hawkeyes. This season there’s one of those The World Will End Crises that our heroes always end up solving. This time, though, they might be out of luck.

Could someone call The Night Nurse? I think Steve has “assembled” in his red, white, and blue Depends.art by Stuart Immonen

It’s the end of the Dimension Z storyline from last season. What happens when Captain America has to make the penultimate sacrifice, and lose the effects of The Super Solider Serum? Well, for starters, we’re gonna need a new Captain America.The Tomorrow Soldier. 1 episode

Episode 2: Avengers Avengers World(written by Jonathan Hickman, art by Jerome Opena and Adam Kubert)Something is on the horizon that’s going to require every Avenger ever, and some who haven’t been Avengers before to work together to save not just the planet but the entire Universe. Tony Stark just might be able to pull it all together.Avengers World. 1 episode

Serial 1: New Avengers Everything Dies, Avengers The Last White Event(written by Jonathan Hickman, art by Steve Epting, Dustin Weaver, and Mike Deodato JR)Apocalyptic space shenanigans as The Builders prepare to rebuild a universe over the remains of the Marvel 616.Everything Dies. 2 episodes

Episode 5: Avengers Prelude To Infinity(written by Jonathan Hickman and Nick Spencer art by Mike Deodato JR and Stefano Caselli)The High Evolutionary and The Builders aren’t the only problem the Marvel Universe is facing. The Savage Land is giving birth to something new, and there’s a big purple faced Death fetishist looming on the horizon.The Builders. 1 episode

Serial 2: Infinity(written by Jonathan Hickman, art by Jim Cheung, Jerome Opena, Dustin Weaver, Mike Deodato JR, Stefano Caselli, Francis Leinil Yu)Thanos and Builders and Avengers, oh my. The Avengers get Even Bigger as the stakes get Even Higher. Do yourself a favor, don’t buy the Avengers Infinity and New Avengers Infinity trades, buy the big Infinity trade paperback, as it contains the entire storyline in the order in which it’s meant to be read. This is possibly the first time Marvel has ever actually collected the story in a precise way.Infinity. 2 episodes

Episode 8: Hawkeye LA Woman(written by Matt Fraction, art by Amy Wu and Javier Pulido)Screw that Barton guy, let’s follow Kate Bishop to the West Coast where she falls into one of Madame Masque’s schemes. This is an almost noir story and is the most west coast this comic has been since Scarlet Witch had those imaginary babies!LA Woman. 1 episode

Episode 9: All New Captain America Hydra Ascendant(written by Rick Remender, art by Stuart Immonen)Falcon is the new Captain America. Watch him battle Steve Rogers’s old foes. When you cut one down, two more appear in their place.Hydra Ascendant. 1 episode

Serial 4: Hawkeye Rio Bravo(written by Matt Fraction, art by David Aja, Annie Wu, and Francesco Francavilla)It’s the end of the Bro saga, as Hawkeye and Hawkeye are reunited to take down the mob that threatens Clint’s apartment complex. Such tiny stakes. Such big adventures.Rio Bravo. 2 episodes

Episode 13: Avengers World AIMpire(written by Jonathan Hickman and Nick Spencer, art by Stefano Caselli)With all of the cosmic going-ons in this season, we need a team on Earth to handle the global problems that actually take place on the globe. A couple of former X-Men and some of the new space spawned Avengers team up to take down AIM from the inside.AIMpire. 1 episode

Episode 14: Avengers Undercover Descent, Avengers Undercover Going Native(Written by Dennis Hopeless, art by Kev Walker, Tigh Walker, and Timothy Greene)Remember those teenagers who barely survived Arcade’s Murderworld last season? Well, The Avengers have decided to send them all undercover to help solve a case that they don’t have time for. This might backfire.Avengers Undercover. 1 episode

Episode 15: Avengers Adapt Or Die(written by Jonathan Hickman, art by Esad Ribic and Salvador Larroca)The Avengers go back into their past to fix their future. That solution ALWAYS works. Just asks the X-Men.Adapt Or Die. 1 episode

Serial 3: Avengers World Ascension, Avengers World Next World(written by Nick Spencer and Al Ewing, art by Marco Checchetto, Stefano Caselli, and Dale Keown)AIM is a huge problem but they’re not the only problem Earth has. Avengers are sent all over the world from Madripoor to Italy to deal with “trouble spots”.Next World. 2 episodes

Serial 4: Young Avengers Style>Substance, Young Avengers Alternative Cultures, Young Avengers Mic Drop At The Edge Of Time And Space(written by Kieron Gillen, art by Jamie McKelvie)Things have been getting super apocalyptical for all of the Avengers team, let’s take a lighthearted break to see how the next generation handles it when all parents go Evil. Ok, so this gets apocalyptical, too, but in a different, more stylish youthy way.Parents Just Don’t Understand. 2 episodes

Episode 20: Captain Marvel Higher Further Faster More(written by Kelly Sue Deconnick, art by David Lopez)Carol Danvers goes back into space to solve a refugee crisis. The Guardians Of The Galaxy make a brief attempt to help her but she’s mainly on her own. This is one of the more well-thought-out, well-written, non-preachy political comics Marvel has put out in years.Original Sin. 1 episode

The Avengers franchise is what made Marvel Studios the completely dominant force in comic based entertainment. The way they streamlined Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, and other characters into an expansive universe that also includes television shows like Daredevil and Agents Of SHIELD is something that has never been achieved before in motion picture entertainment.

The Avengers continuity, even without including the individual characters is supremely daunting. So, I’ve put together a chronology of some of the best Avengers related books that are currently or were recently available in collected editions (the recently available are still around for pretty cheap on various online outlets and in bookstores) into ten TV seasons.Now that Osborne has been defeated. Again. Like, twice last season. It’s time to move on. (Checks series for Osborn appearances). Yes, it’s time to move on. And speaking of time to move on, just imagine The Scarlet Witch muttering “No More Bendis” after one more ridiculous ending, we move into some other writers’ opportunities to tell Avengers stories.

The AvX crossover would have been so much more interesting if it were just a six part dance-off. Hulk got SERVED.art by Bobby Rubio

​Serial 1: Avengers X Sanction, Young Avengers The Childrens’ Crusade(written by Allen Heinberg and Jeph Loeb, art by Jim Cheung and Ed McGuinness)Remember? Remember that time when Wanda Maximoff blew up Avengers Mansion, killed a slew of lesser Avengers, remade the entire universe, and then disappeared? Well, she doesn’t. Wiccan and Speed believe that they might be her imaginary children from way back in the first season, so they and Magneto go traipsing around the globe looking for her. What they find is….you know, the whole point of the book. The Cable story is not super compelling but it sets up the impending super crossoverThe Childrens’ Crusade. 3 episodes

Episode 4: Nova Origin(written by Jeph Loeb, art by Ed McGuinness)Sam Alexander’s dad was a guy named Nova who was part of a giant space opera storyline that we’re not going to get into in this continuity. But he died. Now Sam has his helmet, and with the help or The Guardians Of The Galaxy, he’ll become a hero. And he’ll see something that he should probably tell The Avengers about.

Nova. 1 episode

Serial 2: Avengers Vs X-Men, Avengers Academy AvX, Avengers AvX, New Avengers AvX, Secret Avengers AvX(written by everyone at Marvel, art by everyone and their grandmother at Marvel)The Phoenix Force is back! Which is, uhhhh, a big deal to the X-Men but The Avengers haven’t cared until now. But when it appears that Hope, the first mutant born after M-Day is going to host the most powerful entity in the universe, Cap and the crew get a little anxious and put Wolverine on the spot about fixing the problem. There are a bunch of cool side stories, including Iron Fist taking Hope to learn how to master The Phoenix Force. And, oh yea, The Scarlet Witch is back. For good. This is probably the worst trade I'm putting in this continuity. It's inexcusable garbage written by writers who should have told editorial that writing a series by committee with each person writing a an issue (sometimes, seemingly without having read any of the previous issues) was awful. But it feels important to the continuity. Hopefully, if I'm redoing this continuity in the future, this trade will be far far away from the list.

A team called The Zodiac is being run by Thanos? That…that can’t be good.The Zodiac. 1 episode

Episode 10: Thanos Rising(written by Jason Aaron, art by Simon Bianchi)How did Thanos get to be the big bad bad in the Marvel Universe? By hitting every cliche in the Why I’m A Supervillain Handbook. But he did it on a different planet with beautiful art, so let’s check it out.Thanos Rising. 1 episode

Episode 11: Captain Marvel In Pursuit Of Flight(written by Kelly Sue Deconnick, art by Dexter Soy, Emma Rios, and Filipe Andrade)Carol Danvers is a Captain again. And it’s time for her to get her time travel on.Captain Marvel. 1 episode

Episode 12: Hawkeye My Life As A Weapon(written by Matt Fraction, art by David Aja and Javier Pulido)Clint Barton lives in an apartment building in New York where totally nobody knows he’s Hawkeye. He and his friend Kate Bishop (Hawkeye from The Young Avengers) have a serious problem with some Russian bros. What kind of Avenger story is this?Hawkeyes. 1 episode

Serial 3: Avengers Arena Kill Or Die, Avengers Arena Game On, Avengers Arena Boss Level(written by Dennis Hopeless, art by Alessandro Vitti, Kev Walker, Dave Johnson, Karl Moline, and Ricardo Burchielli)Arcade has trapped sixteen young superheroes on an island where they are going to have to fight to the death. Only the lone survivor will be able to escape. Why aren’t The Avengers or The X-Men coming to help them? Hasn’t anyone noticed they’re missing?Avengers Arena. 2 episodes

Episode 15: Hawkeye Little Hits(written by Matt Fraction, art by David Aja and Javier Pulido)Clint Barton is really bad at love, and dating, and, well, pretty much everything. Kate Bishop and a bunch of his exes guest in this adventure, and we get a story told completely from the perspective of Pizza Dog.My Cherry Amour. 1 episode

Serial 3: Captain Marvel Down, Avengers The Enemy Within(written by Kelly Sue Deconnick, art by Scott Hepburn, Matteo Buffagni, and Filipe Andrade)After a run in with former Captain Marvel, Monica Rambeau, Carol starts to lose her powers, just when a bunch of mysterious events from Avengers past start popping up in NYC. Maybe some Avengers can help.The Enemy Within. 2 episodes

Episode 18: Captain America Castaway In Dimension Z Books 1 & 2(written by Rick Remender, art by Jonathan Romita JR)Arnim Zola ships Steve Rogers into another dimension where nothing is familiar. Unfortunately, like many Remender Avenger books this isn’t great but it did have a huge impact on Steve Rogers’ storyline. Art by Romita JR looks a bit like he had to rush out issues of Hit Girl, as all of his young characters look the same: poorly drawn.Castaway In Dimension Z. 1 episode

Serial 4: Captain America Loose Nuke, Captain America The Iron Nail(written by Rick Remender, art by Carlos Pacheco, Nic Klein, and Pascal Alixe)Fortunately, this Remender storyline works better and has far superior art. Cap was in Dimension Z so long that he’s having trouble reacclimating to the 616. And, unfortunately, his battle against some new villains is not going to end up returning everything to normalcy.The Iron Nail. 2 episodes

The X-Men franchise has had a few animated series, and is on their way to a sixth live action movie. But how would you put together a ten season live action show with continuity and including the best stories from the various X-books over the years?

​Now that the X-Men are tucked safe and sound in a place called Utopia, one would imagine they’re all happy together and throwing the best psychic slumber parties ever, right? Not so much.

Legion, Professor X’s mentally ill son, is one of the most powerful mutants in existence. He has a long and complicated backstory intertwined with The Age Of Apocalypse (which he accidentally created) but let’s pretend we are seeing him for the first time here. He’s brought to Utopia by The New Mutants and in the first half of The Aftermath trade, he accidentally creates Age Of X. So put Aftermath down, check out The Age Of X trade, you can skip the Avengers and Spider-Man stories at the end of Age Of X, and then resume reading Aftermath, as Utopia struggles to understand how many of the mutants spent seven days in an imaginary world.

Age Of X. 3 episodes

Episode 4: X-Men Legacy Lost Legions(written by Mike Carey, art by Khoi Pham)Professor X forms a team of X-Men to track down six of Legion’s missing personalities.Lost Legions. 1 episode

There is a run of X-Force that goes back a few years before this, and it’s a good run, but Remender’s run is excellent. X-Force is a team assembled by Cyclops to handle situations that the now public X-Men can’t be publicly involved with. Wolverine is the team leader and they do all sorts of morally dubious things. Their first mission lead them to a reborn Apocalypse who is still a child when they discover him. Their second mission gives them an opportunity to get their revenge on The Reavers from waaaay back in Season One. The only problem? Deathloks programmed to kill Fantomex. Ok, that’s not their ONLY problem.

Fiiiiine, here’s your Age Of Apocalypse story. Angel has been able to transform back and forth into Archangel for a while now, but Archangel is becoming a bit of a monster. In fact, he may be the next Apocalypse. Can his teammates stop him before he destroys this world?

Dark Angel. 3 episodes

Serial 5: X-Men Schism(written by Jason Aaron and Kieron Gillen, art by Carlos Pacheco, Frank Cho, Daniel Acuna, Alan Davis, Adam Kubert, and Billy Tan)The whole point of X-Force is to be the soldiers of the X-Men’s Utopia, so when Cyclops responds to a new Hellfire and Sentinel threat by using members of Generation Hope, Wolverine decides that the X-Men have gone astray and decides to come up with a solution. Breaking up the X-Men.

Schism. 2 episodes

Serial 6: Uncanny X-Force Otherworld, Uncanny X-Force The Final Execution Volumes 1 & 2(written by Rick Remender and Sam Humphries, art by Jerome Opena and Ron Garney)Wolverine has some unfinished business to attend to before he can take on his new role as headmaster of the Jean Grey school. This arc is probably not going to win him the prestigious Father Of The Year Award.

The Final Execution. 4 episodes

Serial 7: Uncanny X-Men by Kieron Gillen Volumes 1 & 2(written by Kieron Gillen, art by Carlo Pacheco and Brandon Peterson)Back on Utopia, Cyclops uses the adult X-Men to handle events that would previously be X-Force’s problem and dubs them The Extinction Team. Mr Sinister returns to help them live up to their name.

Wolverine opens the Jean Grey school for mutants on the grounds of the former Charles Xavier school in Westchester. For a guy who’s all about making younger mutants students and not soldiers, he sure puts them in a lot of life or death situations, though. Blame the Hellfire club.

New School. 3 episodes

Season 9 is 20 episodes

Interseason Special: Avengers The Childrens’ Crusade(written by Allan Heinberg, art by Jim Cheung)The Young Avengers go off in search of Wiccan’s mom, The Scarlet Witch, who has only been seen once since House Of M. How will the possibility of her return affect the population whose genocide she’s responsible for?